I moved the herd from the Swamp to North Pasture around 8am yesterday morning, and counted sixteen cattle through the gate. Last evening, I took spike through Hoo Wood around 9pm and listened for bellowing down on the marsh. Hearing cattle bellowing after dark usually means something is wrong. Cattle will go through the motions of bellowing and mooing at night, but they make no noise.

Terry Bull, Wayne Galloway and Marigold’s calf, Rowena, strolled towards me in the Northern Corridor this afternoon. The gates to North Pond and North Pastures were properly closed. So how the three ended up in the corridor is a bit of a mystery.

The corridor doesn’t have drinking water, and the suckling Rowena could have been separated from her mother for well over a day. I returned Terry and Wayne to North Pasture first, and then went back for Rowena. The calf did its best to avoid me and ran along the corridor like a mad thing. I don’t chase calves, to do so makes them super hyper. Eventually, Marigold called out to her calf and it rushed through the two gates I had opened to drink her mother dry.

This episode shows why it is necessary to check on cattle at least once a day.

Many cows can jump surprising heights. An average field fence is little obstacle to an average Shetland that has had some motivating factor, eg- fear, “that bush looks tasty”, calf on other side of fence, pure bloody-mindedness, etc.

I’ve had calves in places they shouldn’t be, but not three beasts together. Maybe the calf squeezed through the fence and Terry and Wayne jumped over to protect it. There is also a possibility that someone left the gates open and then closed them later not realising three animals had slipped through.